My Blue Iris
by Konwaliawrites
Summary: Post Sonic Forces timeline: life has gotten pretty quiet ever since Eggman Empire fell and the world got rebuilt. This helped Shadow realize he just has way too much free time... so he decided to look for a hobby. Turns out flower arranging picked up his interest, so he visits the nearby flower store nearly daily. Fluff, future Sonadow. Slow development.
1. Chapter 1

My Blue Iris

Chapter I

"This is purely impossible," Shadow the Hedgehog murmured to himself, giving the thick book in front of him a death glare.

The said book was called _Ikebana – the Art of arranging Flowers_ , and he was currently trying to mimic one of the tutorials the book contained. Well, it was easier said than done – he ended up with tender lily leaves getting dark marks from being bent over, some of them even falling down, and with his arrangement looking, well... ridiculous to say the least. The flowers trapped in his tiny flower vase looked like they begged him to set it free – or at least they would certainly do is, if only they had a mind of their own.

It is true that he picked up this new hobby pretty recently, so he shouldn't expect great results so soon, but he was really jealous of all those pictures of beautifully arranged bouquets and floral compositions from the book. He wanted to reach this level of experience already.

Ever since Eggman's forces were defeated, and together with the resistance they made sure that everything is restored to its former glory, life has gotten... pretty quiet. Eggman or Infinite didn't show up ever since, and while it is important to stay on guard just in case... there's just nothing to do nowadays. Turns out that adventure-free life is extremely boring.

At first, he just stuck to reading all sorts of books, experimenting with different types, wondering if maybe other genres he never took into consideration could pick his interest after all. Romance, thrillers, comedy... he tried pretty much everything. And, as enjoyable as reading is, if it's the only thing that person does in their life, it can get pretty boring.

He wasn't quite sure what pushed him into practising this art style specifically, still in the process of figuring out what exactly he wants to do in his life now. He never expected to find himself in this place, having to re-arrange his life so suddenly. But maybe that's exactly why he chose this particular hobby. It gave him a sense of control. And he felt oddly at peace gently touching the soft leaves and smelling the comforting scent of flowers filling the air.

And so here he is, in his tiny apartment, his living room filled with all sorts of flowers – lily, blue iris, fairy rose – scattered not so neatly around and occupying every surface.

Despite the fact that scattered flowers give the impression of the room being messy, the rest was very tidy and well arranged – if it weren't for flowers, it wouldn't be possible to spot a thing out of place – every book on a bookshelf was height arranged, light wood of the furniture contrasting nicely with the warm hue of brown on the walls. All of this combined with the beautiful landscape paintings gave the entire room a very comforting, soft vibe.

However, not even those pleasant surroundings could stop the frustration from piling up in obsidian hedgehog. In the end, feeling resigned and disappointed, he let out a loud and heavy sigh and pulled the lily along with the bamboo out of the vase and threw them across the room.

Time to call it a day. He could always try again tomorrow.

He looked out of the window and noticing the sun slowly setting on the sky he decided to check the time on his phone. Eight in the evening. It surprised him to know just how much he lost track of time. He knew that his new hobby was time-consuming, but he never expected that he wouldn't even notice the day passing by. Even though it took him the better day of the day. it still felt like he started barely few minutes ago.

'Well, I guess it wouldn't be so bad to go for a walk before sleep,' he thought to himself and stepped out of his apartment, making sure to lock the door and check twice... well, maybe three times if the door is locked properly. It is a bad habit, he knows it is, but old habits die hard. At least he won't be stressing himself out during his walk.

The moment he walked out of his apartment, he was surprised to see how surprisingly lively it was at this hour – sure, Park Avenue has always been pretty busy, but one would've thought that not many people would be eager to leave the house so late in the evening. However, considering it's a Friday evening... perhaps it's not so surprising, after all. Even the stores are still open.

All of the stores in sight in fact, so maybe, just maybe... his recent favourite too?

Not even five minutes later, Shadow is already standing in front of Iris Flower Shop, and found himself feeling very content when he notices that indeed – store is open until 9pm on Fridays. Perhaps for last minute Friday dates? Who knows. It's not like it matters anyway.

The dark hedgehog went inside the store, the doorbell jingling loudly upon his arrival, temporarily breaking the usual, pleasant and quiet atmosphere of the store. He grimaced slightly, waiting for the sound to subdue.

Now that he thought of it... Perhaps this was one of the reasons he became so interested with flower arranging in the first place? He enjoyed nothing more than peace and quiet, so company of flowers was much appreciated. It helped him quiet down and for once, forget how foul the world can be. It also had soft and beautiful parts, like flower petals.

He was just supposed to look around to see if miss Shana got a delivery of some new flowers today, but whatever new species they would bring in, they wouldn't surprise him as much as what he saw.

Sonic, wearing the gray flower shop apron, clumsily putting fresh flowers in multi-coloured vases.

What the...?

Blue hedgehog turned his head around upon hearing the sound of the bell, and the situation that followed could be described one word only.

 _Awkward._

* * *

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for taking your time to pick up my story. It's the first fanfic I published literally ever... and it started as a joke, based on hilarious Lego Shadow DLC event. However, as I was progressing with the story, I noticed I started treating it more and more seriously and to be honest, I think Shadow desperately needs something soft and beautiful in his life. Anyway, let me know what you think and I hope to see you in the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

My Blue Iris

Chapter II

"So uh, how can I help you?" The blue hedgehog asked sheepishly, trying to hide his feeling of curiosity. He never thought Shadow would be flower type of guy and now he badly needs explanation. He literally never saw the obsidian hedgehog show even slightest interest in flowers. Although… he is also aware that dark hedgehog is usually very reluctant about letting other people get to know him. So, for now it seems like playing it cool is the best option. This is his specialty anyway.

"No need for help. Actually, I just came by to see if there was a new delivery, but… speaking of which, I never saw you here before. The great hero of Mobius finally decided to settle down and get a job?" Shadow replied with a smirk. He wasn't going to give Sonic any chances to win this invisible fight of dominance between them, already bringing up his strong card.

It wasn't necessarily as good as he thought, mostly considered the circumstances the obsidian hedgehog didn't know about just yet. Sonic laughed for a while upon hearing these words, and Shadow decided to fight against his face muscles trying to form into a small smile.

"You wish! I'm still free as the wind, buddy," he exclaimed happily and spread his arms, as if to prove his point, "however, if you must know, life is boring, and I really mean super boring without Egghead trying to take over the world every now and then," blue hedgehog released a small pout at that part, however, it lasted only couple of seconds before he was back to his old cheerful self, "so, after we helped rebuilding the city and all I decided it would be best to help people out in their lives. Maybe I'm not having as much fun as I would have smashing Crabmeats, but I'm still helping out. Miss Shana handles this entire store alone, not to mention she had to start from a scratch after her store was demolished during one of Infinite's raids… so yeah, here I am, helping out like I always am!"

Shadow's smirk turned into something softer, something he didn't bother acknowledging. He turned his gaze to flower vases and noticed the way the flowers tangled after being put in there. Sure, he barely started his journey with flower arranging, but the only person that would not notice how bad Sonic is at handling fragile objects would be someone with very, _very_ poor eyesight.

"Have it your way then. However, if I may… you don't necessarily seem to be exactly skilled at what you are doing in here… Gladiolus may have pretty strong stems, but with the way you put them in there I think they might end up breaking anyway. Why not try out some other stores? I heard Don Fachio recently opened another hot dog stand in Park Avenue, isn't it more your thing?"

Well, that definitely succeeded at riling Sonic up. Hero looked at him in an angry manner, puffing his flushing cheeks.

"Hmph! Well, if you have to know, I _did_ offer my help there, and after a day I got fired! Me, who saved this planet more times than I can count, got fired! Sure, I ate one chili dog…" dark hedgehog gave him pretty disbelieving look, which slowly caused the blue hero to spill the beans, "or two…"

The persistent stare of Shadow's didn't help sugarcoating the story. Sonic's angry resolve broke and now he just looked purely embarrassed as he looked away from these intense ruby eyes.

"Okay, okay! I ate ten of them!" He raised his arms in a gesture of surrender, "But can you imagine how difficult it is when you have to look at them all day, and they are so close and all you have to do is just prepare them and they're yours… Just don't tell Tails please, he still thinks I work there!"

The blue hedgehog looked at him with pleading eyes and this situation was just too ridiculous. Shadow couldn't resist releasing short, honest laugh. That was nearly too much.

"I don't think he would be very surprised, but sure, I don't see why not."

That was all that was needed for Sonic to go back to his default cheerful mood.

"But yeah, I don't know all that much about handling flowers, unless picking flowers for Cream counts," Sonic laughed nervously and scratched his ear, "however, you seem to know quite a bit about flowers, much to my surprise…"

It was Sonic's turn to smirk this time.

"Big bad Shadow developing a soft spot?"

Shadow's face was pretty emotionless as he was contemplating whether or not he should take the bait. Their play-fights usually contain bickering and teasing, but today he felt himself giving in a little.

'Maybe I'm getting sick or something,' he thought, because otherwise there was no way he was giving up fight as easily as he was doing so now.

"So what if I am?" was his only response.

"Well, nothing really, I'm actually really glad…" he noticed Shadow's questioning look, "that found something you enjoy, I mean! You don't seem to enjoy many things overall… ugh, sorry, what am I talking about, I guess I don't know that much about you to come up with judgement like that…"

"Well, that was rude, but I do accept your apologies." Shadow sighed and crossed his arms, "so, you gonna let these poor flowers break or are you gonna do your job properly? I know it's more of volunteering than an actual job, but I still assume you want to give the best performance possible."

"Of course! Can't expect any less of me, I'm perfect at everything I do!" Sonic stroke one of his typical heroic poses – chest straight up, full of pride, eyes shining with playfulness and his grin wide as ever. He even went as far as to show Shadow thumbs up and for a split second dark hedgehog seriously wondered if maybe, by any chance there is some more news reporters nearby, currently taking yet another picture of the hero of Mobius for their newest issue.

A smirk made its way back to Shadow's face.

"Well, clearly not perfect enough to keep flowers from dying. My eyes feel actual physical pain from looking at these struggling carnations…"

Before the blue hero could come up with any comeback, the dark hedgehog already touched the flowers and began fixing their position in vases.

"Look," he pointed to the bottom of the vase, "it's not actually that hard to put them in there, but you have to do it slowly and carefully and make sure stems don't get tangled up in the process. This is why it's called 'putting' flowers in vases and not 'throwing'. What you did in here, though, could definitely be called throwing."

Sonic looked at him with curiosity the whole time and he was glad that, for once, he managed to get Sonic's attention.

"Now, why don't you try the same with other flower vases? I'll see how you're doing."

"Alright! This ain't that hard, I'm sure it's pretty easy once you start the right way…"

Blue hero fixed the remaining vases and looked at his work with content.

"Thanks, Shadow! So, am I going to see you here more often or…?"

 _Hm, good question. Are you?_

"Perhaps, yeah. Someone's gotta make sure you don't get fired again, right?" he smirked, and this time it sure earned a reaction he hoped for.

"That was a one time Shadow! One time!"

This sentence sounded tense, but this situation definitely wasn't.

The happy, peaceful atmosphere could be felt in the air.


End file.
